The present invention relates in general to vented piercing devices used in intravenous administration sets, and more particularly, to a vented piercing device used with small volume parenteral fluid containers.
Heretofore, small volume parenteral fluid containers have been pierced with bottle puncture needles in assembling an intravenous setup. Using bottle needles presents several problems, however. Firstly, such needles have become expensive, and may become even more expensive as time goes on. It is noted that two needles are required to withdraw fluid from a container, one needle to define a fluid path and one needle to vent the bottle. Thus, the cost of such bottle piercing devices is raised even more. Secondly, puncturing such fluid containers with bottle needles requires dual punctures of such container. Every time a vial is punctured, there is a risk of contamination. It is evident that the fewer times a container needs to be punctured, the more aseptic the setup.
Accordingly, there is need for a device which can be used to withdraw parenteral fluid from small volume containers while requiring only a single puncture of the container. Such a device will reduce costs of intravenous sets as well as reduce risks of contamination.
In vented piercing devices, the air passage and the fluid passage must be separate and independent of each other. Accordingly, the manufacture of very small piercing devices of this nature places strict requirements on the tools used in that manufacturing process. For example, if the small piercing device is molded, the core pins used in the process to form the passages must be long and slender. Such core pin construction makes them fragile and quite susceptible to breaking. In fact, to form the passages in such devices it is usual for the air passages to be angled to permit the core pin to be properly positioned.
Accordingly, not only is there need for a small piercing device, there is need for method of manufacturing that device in an economical manner.